[Tango-L] Review of Practica X

[Shahrukh Merchant]

"Vince Bagusauskas" <vytis at hotmail.com> said:

> Excellent review Shahrukh. What I suspected that it is not a true
practica. So where do all the nuevo dancers hang-out? :)


There seems to be an assumption that practica = nuevo dancers. The fact 
that there is some truth (i.e., some correlation between these groups) 
makes the assumption that much more tricky. It doesn't help that some 
practicas (like X) are in fact milongas, at least at this point (I 
remember being there some years ago when it did not have a milonga feel 
to it, though I still didn't get a feeling that people were there to 
practise steps either). The whole practica-vs-milonga question is 
probably a subject for a different thread (my short version is that, for 
the practicas that are mostly for dancing, it is ultimately just a 
marketing thing), but I don't really have an answer to your question as 
to where the nuevo dancers go--I was expecting to see much more nuevo in 
Practica X than I saw, especially given the large number of "tango 
tourist" attendees.

My observation is that if you take all Tango dancers in Buenos Aires, 
subtract all the tango visitors, then subtract all those who teach them, 
there are precious few nuevo dancers left. That may change over time, 
but it's still a fringe phenomenon amongst (non-tango-professional) 
Argentines. Maybe a nuevo regular who seeks out nuevo spots in Buenos 
Aires and would be better informed on this than I can comment on or 
correct that observation. A couple of other spots that I'd been to where 
I might have expected nuevo-like dancing were quite lightly attended. 
Jan points out TangoCool! at Villa Malcolm, which I had forgotten about 
and IS indeed popular (haven't been there in a while -- ends too early 
for me :-) -- and since I don't recall its being air-conditioned I may 
not go for a while either!).


RonTango <rontango at rocketmail.com> wonders:

... whether the "holiday effect" of Argentines leaving town and tourists 
coming into town affects the proportion of Argentines vs. non-Argentines 
at milongas and practicas, and also whether holiday closings of some 
milongas might cause some practica organizers to make their practicas 
temporarily more milonga-like.

Ron, if the question was regarding my estimation that 80% of attendees 
at Practica X seemed to be visitors, I don't think it had a big effect 
(I can't be sure since I hadn't been to Practica X much before that, so 
have a limited reference point). The reason I say that is that I went on 
29 December, and yes, while visitors start taking their vacation in 
mid-late December to include the Christmas and New Year's days off, 
Argentines really do start their vacation on 1 Jan (MAYBE a few on 31 
Dec)--they like to be in town for Christmas to celebrate with families 
and to take part in festivities in the city, and the whole summer 
vacation mentality in Argentina is very much geared to which quincena 
(fortnight) will be your vacation: 1-15 Jan, 16-31 Jan, 1-14 Feb or 
15-28 Feb. So there may have been somewhat more tourists, but there 
shouldn't have been fewer Argentines.

And there aren't relatively speaking that many Milonga closings for 
January, though attendance is definitely lower in most. Torquato Tasso 
is closed for the month, for example, but that's mainly because it's 
primarily a performance venue and they have no performances scheduled 
(like most theatres) during January, so the entire facility is closed. 
Perhaps a few smaller milongas de barrio are closed for short periods 
when the owners go on vacation, or a couple of places take advantage of 
the lighter turnout to do renovations at the like. In any event, I can't 
really see organizers adjusting their milonga/practica themes to take 
into account what else is open or not -- it's not really part of the 
mindset (and I don't see any identifiable need for it either).


Jan <jb34528 at att.net> says:

> If I may, what you omitted in "What you get at Práctica X" is that he
> management will not interfere if you lead shoulder high boleos or
> whirling colgadas, e.g. As long as you do not hurt anyone. I.e., the
> practica provisions apply. Not sure that´s allowed in Viejo Correo. 

The first statement ("management will not interfere ...") is probably 
true. On the one hand, I could not have added it to my "What you get 
..." list because I never observed ultra-high boleos or whirling 
colgadas, nor have observed people being reprimanded in other milongas 
for doing them (I don't see them that often in other milongas in Buenos 
Aires either). There was also no evidence of "practica provisions," 
implicit or explicit--what are they and where are they declared? (I'm 
not being argumentative here--I'd truly like to know what is this list, 
and whether there is some sort of consensus surrounding it amongst 
practica organizers.)

Actually, I have never seen or even heard of anyone actually being asked 
to leave a milonga because of doing nuevo steps. Notwithstanding talk of 
mysterious codigos and so on, there is much more tolerance in milongas 
these days than there used to be (whether that's a good thing or not is 
a separate discussion!). Now, if you are actually being dangerous (and I 
don't think the organizer should wait until you actually hurt someone -- 
"Sorry about that gouged-out eye, but we DO call this a practica, you 
know ..." :-)), you should be "talked to" anywhere, though realistically 
speaking, organizers are reluctant to do so except in extreme cases. The 
threshold for being considered dangerous may very well be quite 
different in a large space with mostly young people, vs. a small place 
with people dancing who are old enough that a strong bump could 
translate into a fall and a fractured hip.

> And in response to Vince who wrote: "...I suspected that it is not a
> true practica.". Indeed Practica X was one of the first (if not the
> first) tango venues that allowed dancing free of milonga restrictions
> on style, i.e., "nuevo". Hence the designation "practica". During its
> 5 year existence it became a premier young crowd dance venue and some

Indeed, Practica X seems to have become the "premier young-crowd venue" 
at least for tourists. For Argentines, I suspect it's La Viruta, though 
that gets more of a mixed crowd. (I should go back there too -- the last 
I went the dancing was pretty bad and navigation at Practica X was much 
better than what I recall at La Viruta -- but from more recent reports 
I'm hearing, perhaps it's different now.)

> of the dancers coming now are rank beginners so the "nuevo" crowd was
> substantially diluted - a milonga of young people. Yet "nuevo" is OK

There is an implication here that the nuevo crowd comprises good 
dancers, who were "diluted" by the beginners (presumably not doing 
nuevo). This may have been true at one point, but this was not 
consistent with my observation at Practica X last week, where the best 
dancers with the best connection were those dancing close-embrace, with 
only one exception. (And I am not being narrow in my interpretation of 
"connection" to mean only a chest-to-chest subtle close-embrace 
connection--I can appreciate good connection in modern dance, ballet, 
West Coast Swing, etc.) Now perhaps there were a lot of nuevo dancers 
who were mostly dancing close-embrace because that's all the space 
allowed (and they were largely experienced-enough dancers to realize 
that and accommodate that), or perhaps formerly nuevo dancers "returning 
to the fold" :-) but the "young-crowd venue" descriptor is more accurate 
for Practica X than "nuevo venue."


Shahrukh